Moral Law In Antigone

The conditionality of burying the dead shows that gods’ law is less sacred for Antigone than she claims to be. Neither does she care about her living families. She humiliates Ismene publicly, causing Creon’s death indirectly and set her uncle Creon in a dilemma where he needs to punish his daughter-in-law. Her real incentive is individual reputation, for she excludes Ismene from standing by her and asks Ismene to spread the news about her defiant act. She seems to use religion and family as elegant reasons to achieve honor. On the contrary, Creon, as a king, weights the interest of the overall state more than his own family. After experiencing the civil war caused by Polyneices, he understands the great need of the polis for order and thus enacts harsh laws to punish people causing riots. Unanimous obedience to law would also encourage his people to fight bravely in the war by being “loyal and dauntless at his comrades’s side”. Creon has to retain the validity and effectiveness of the law, because if every citizen can pursue any personal interest without fear for grave consequences, the entire social operation mechanism would break down. Punishing Antigone is necessary to retain the order of the polis.

Divine Law Versus Human Law The main conflict between King Creon and Antigone in “Antigone” by Sophocles is one of a power struggle and choosing who to be obedient to. Antigone follows her heart and religious beliefs against the King’s orders as she plans to bury her brother in secret against the King’s ruling that Polynices be left to rot. She believes that a burial will assure her brother’s soul rest and that it is what the god’s want. However, King Creon is making a public example of Polynices’ body as he was a traitor that invaded the city.

The idea that "all citizens are protected by the law" (Adkins 3.2) is a fair concept, but there is no point to be protected if the law is unfair. Creon emboldened by his power is blindsided to his consciousness; he cannot see his moral thoughts. Antigone feels pleasure as she did what she had to do so she kills herself, and she dies peacefully with herself as she obtains her moral fate. However, when Haemon, Creon's son, finds out that Antigone kills herself, he kills himself. The messenger brings the sad news that, "Haemon hath perished; his blood hath been shed by no stranger" (Sophocles 42). The death of Haemon was "in wrath with his sire for the murder" (Sophocles 42). Creon in shock is horrified; as he begins to realize his mistake and when the wife of Creon, Eurydice, over hears the news of her dead son she kills herself in response to her dead son. The three deaths are in response to one another,

In the play Antigone, Creon, king of Thebes faces a harsh conflict with himself, involving the values of family and religion verse the civic responsibility he must maintain for the city of Thebes that comes with being the new king. In theory no decision Creon makes is going to be the rite one. Although both Antigone and Creon have justified reasons for believing in there own laws only one can be upheld by the play and how Sophocles interoperates the play himself. Creon must decide whether to punish Antigone, a princess, daughter of king Oedipus, or fail at enforcing his own law and look weak in front of the citizens of Thebes as their new leader. The law stated that anybody who touched the corpse of Polyneices, a prince, and son of Oedipus

Later in the play, Antigone was captured for being caught in the act of burying her brother and is now conversing with King Creon about her decision made to revolt. On page 783, Creon is surprised when he says, “…you dared defy the law,” to Antigone due to boasting her rebellious actions. In this demonstration, Antigone does not deny her guilt, but declares all of the information, provided by the guards, true. Antigone does not care for the consequences, which is death; she knew what she would create for herself when she chose to bury her brother. A second example of this is on page 784 when Antigone states, “There is no guilt in reverence for the dead.” By what Antigone said, she believes it should not be against the law to have reverence or lamentation towards the dead, especially if the deceased is part

Creon is the king of Thebes in Sophocles' Greek tragedy Antigone. His tragic flaw was arrogance. He arrogantly decreed that no one was to bury his son-in-law, and that his body would rot dishonorably; however, this was against the laws of the Zeus and the other gods. Deciding that his decree was more important that that of the gods, he expected all the people to obey him. Unfortunately for Creon, his daughter-in-law Antigone attempted to bury her brother, the dead man. His son Haemon was betrothed to Antigone, and attempted to reason with Creon that the entire city loved what Antigone did. But against his son's advice, Creon arrogantly condemned Antigone to death in a cave. A blind prophet came and recited all the bad omens that had happened,

According to Creon, the King of Thebes, one who believes in the government’s strength and law as a Theban, is a person who works for justice: “You cannot learn of any man the soul, the mind, and the intent until he shows his practice of the government and law” (175-177). Whoever didn’t comply with his philosophy was executed. To make an example of one who defies his ideology, Creon decides to leave the traitor of Thebes, Polyneices, to rot as a decaying corpse. However, there is a great discrepancy when Creon’s decision conflicts with one other aspect of his life, family. Antigone, Polyneices’ younger sister , believed that her brother deserved a proper burial even though he threatened her and the entire city. Creon believes that Polyneices should be left unburied, “his corpse disgraced, a dinner for the birds and for the dogs” (205-206). Despite the struggle between caring for family and doing what’s right for the city, Creon’s understanding of justice at the beginning of Antigone, by Sophocles, is only meant for protecting the order of the city, and eventually leads to the tragic demise of his loved ones.

Many believe that the divine word holds more power than man, Antigone is one of these people and hold the divines laws higher than man's laws. On the other hand, Creon believes that holding power is the way of life and tries to uphold his laws over the deity laws. Creon does this when the brothers Polyneices and Eteocles kill each other and Polyneices is designated as a traitor. Creon decides to prohibit the people from burying Polyneices properly and follow the god's law to prevent more rebellions. Antigone on the other hand believes that a Creon's law holds no power over her from giving a proper burial. As Antigone is talking to Ismene she states "No one shall say I failed him! I will bury my brother -- and yours too, if you will not"( Sophocles ). This statement shows

Until Creon follows the simple burial rites, numerous misfortunes, including the deaths of his loved ones, will occur as a result of his actions. One may think that Creon must challenge the Gods because Antigone challenges his laws; however, fear of the Gods and guilt motivate Antigone to defy Creon. Antigone’s defiance does not lead to the deaths of others because she defies an individual who did not follow the law, while Creon’s disobedience ends in violence.

Family is very important and is shown through the many ways in society. That family will often be more important than the authority or law. The tragic Greek play, Antigone written by Sophocles. Within Antigone, Sophocles presents many situations where characters are forced to face their feelings of law or family. Throughout Antigone, Sophocles proves his strong devotion to family, even more. Sophocles presents these through the actions of Antigone, Creon, and Haemon with the choices that they make throughout the play. For instance, Antigone had many chances to obey the law or her own familial bonds. Antigone chooses to obey family, and bury Polynices even though burying breaks Creon's law. Antigone pleads with her sister to help, but when she says no, Antigone responds, “But as for me/ I will bury the brother I love” (Prologue. 192). Antigone was willing to break Creon's authority as a family means much more to her, this presents her as selfless. Along with breaking the law, Antigone also risks execution for that crime. When Antigone learns of her punishment, after Creon discovers, Antigone decides if entombing her brother was worth it. Following Creon's warning, she says, “This death of mine/ is of no importance; but if I had left my brother/ lying in death unburied, I should have suffered. / Now I do not” (Scene II. 208). Antigone shows the courage that even death won't scare her from her goals. Antigone chooses family, when in the face of the capital punishment.

When faced with the option of obeying the laws of her society or honoring her brother Polynices’ death, Antigone’s choice was a difficult one. In the play Antigone, written by Sophocles, there is a feud between choosing to do the right and wrong thing. On one hand, moral beliefs pull Antigone closer to disobeying law. On the other hand, fear of disrespecting what is left of her family keeps her on the edge of making a decision. Her uncle Creon, also known as the King of Thebes, believes that Polynices betrayed the country and does not deserve a proper burial, but the controversy ultimately leads to Antigone going against the law, fulfilling her moral compass. This however can be questioned by her act of suicide during the end of the play. Antigone’s choice to bury her brother has moral worth because of her religious and self beliefs, she did the right thing for the right

Antigone acts on what is morally correct by burying her beloved brother and following the natural law despite Creon’s authoritative orders. Aristotle notes in Nicomachean Ethics,“for even if this is the same thing for an individual and a city, to secure and preserve the good of the city appears to be something greater and more complete: the good of the individual by himself is certainly desirable enough, but that of a nation and of cities is nobler and more divine” (Sophocles 3). Creon has an authoritative position in society and takes advantage of his role by implementing unjust laws prohibiting the citizens of basic rights. Creon believes that the laws he creates as the ruler of Thebes is essentially superior to a higher form of law, the divine law, which Antigone tries to follow by pleading to bury her

Despite this, Creon believes that it is right to uphold his laws in his position as king and that he personally owns the state, making no exceptions to even his niece and future daughter in law Antigone who challenges this and gains the audiences’ sympathy for being a martyr of her beliefs. To obey the divine law and allow the burial of Polyneices is what Antigone believes is what is right even to the extent of taking her own life but, that isn’t what Creon proclaimed: “…But his brother Polyneices, who broke his exile to come back with fire and sword against his native city and the shrines of his fathers’ gods, whose one idea was to spill the blood of his blood and sell his own people into slavery- Polyneices, I say is to have no burial: no man is to touch him and say the least prayer for

Sophocles’ Antigone is a play that deals with the nature of justice on multiple levels. But at its core, the play centers around the plight of the titular Antigone, as she attempts to find a proper burial for her brother Polyneices. However, Antigone’s mission directly contradicts the decree of the powerful Creon, who refuses to allow Polyneices this burial, even if such a stance goes against the will of the gods. Eventually, Creon responds to the ire of the gods and finally gives Polyneices an honorable burial. Though the beginning and the middle of play are fascinating in their own respect, highlighting the tensions that exist between the spheres of the divine, the political, and the interpersonal, the very end of the play warrants its own discussion, acting as a sort of resolution (if anything is even truly resolved) between these differing ideals. At the end of the play, Creon has become someone who appears to have lost everything - his children and wife are all dead. However, he is still king, retaining control over Thebes; in no way is that power diminished. Under this, the fact that Creon survives becomes something of particular interest. Is it just for Creon to still be alive, in this position of power, even after everything he has done? In looking at this question, I believe that Creon’s survival constitutes a peculiar failure of justice. The fact that he survives, given the nature of his earlier transgressive rule, seems to be something rather unjust. In addition,

The theme of Antigone is the struggle between political law and moral law; the difference of following the law because it is the law and following one’s own morals because you feel it is what is right. The characters in Antigone face this struggle when confronted with Creon’s refusal of a burial for Antigone’s brother Polynices.